Notebooks To Blame For GDDR Price Increase

The continued demand for laptop memory appears to be overshadowing the need for faster graphics memory, at least according to inside sources at unnamed players in the DRAM industry:

"Some DRAM makers have started allotting more capacity for commodity DRAM, especially SO-DIMMs for notebooks, the sources said. Capacity for GDDR has started to strain amid the strategic capacity allocation, they noted. As DRAM makers are expected to reserve capacity priority for commodity DRAM for 1-2 quarters, a price revision for GDDR is thus likely, they said. The sources indicated that a price hike is likely to be seen from the second half of May, as some system makers are expected to completely digest their inventory by then."

We’re not shocked that the demand for anything laptop related is high, but we are certainly curious as to why capacity was taken from GDDR production. Is it possible that there aren’t enough titles out there that push graphics cards hard enough to make end users want to upgrade?